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Secretary of State Colin Powell and EPA Administrator Christine Whitman spoke separately to reporters yesterday and responded to questions on the agreement reached in Bonn and U.S. climate change policy.
Of note from Powell: President Bush takes global climate change "very, very seriously" Agreement in Bonn is not acceptable to U.S. Bush Administration hopes to release its climate change plan by next set of international climate change meetings (Oct. 2001, Morocco) or at future sessions Of note from Whitman: Whitman supports the recognition of carbon sinks included in the Bonn agreement The White House climate change task force will meet again in August to develop plan Please also see some reactions from Capitol Hill. The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee held a hearing yesterday on climate change. There are some interesting quotes from members in the stories below, but mostly from the usual suspects. We will have to wait to see if the agreement reached in Bonn will create more momentum for bipartisan action to address climate change this Congress. Most feel that next Congress is more realistic. While the divide on policy options still exists (i.e. voluntary vs. mandatory CO2 reductions), there is wider support for better systems to report of greenhouse gas emissions reductions, increases in R&D, incentives for a broad range of clean energy technologies (clean coal, renewable, fuel cells) and carbon sequestration technologies and pilot programs. Of note, Senator Frank Murkowski criticized the Bonn agreement for excluding nuclear energy projects from the mechanisms Senator Bingaman said that there is a "greater willingness to move ahead" and that Senators are becoming increasingly uncomfortable with the U.S. not having a climate change policy Please let me know if you have any questions. ---- US not dodging global warming challenge - Powell JAPAN: July 25, 2001 TOKYO - U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell yesterday defended America's record on environmental protection and said Washington was not denying its responsibilities by refusing to back the Kyoto pact on global warming. In talks with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, Powell thanked Tokyo for its efforts to bridge the gap between the United States and the European Union on the 1997 Kyoto pact, but added that Washington could not support the accord as it stands. "We know that global warming is a challenge. The United States is not running away from that challenge," Powell told a news conference after meeting Koizumi. "The president is committed to working with all the nations of the world who are involved in this process, to find ways that we can join a consensus at some point in the future, but the Kyoto Protocol - even what came out at Bonn - still is not acceptable to the United States," Powell said. Four days of high-level negotiations in Bonn, Germany, ended this week with a broad package on how to implement the Kyoto accord to reduce greenhouse gas emissions after Tokyo won latitude on how to reach its targets. Tokyo's consent has been crucial to bringing the accord into force since U.S. President George W. Bush rejected in March the 1997 pact, saying it would hurt the economy of the world's biggest polluter. Loathe to alienate the United States or to put Japanese companies at a competitive disadvantage, Koizumi has sought to lure Washington back to the Kyoto accord even as he promises Japan is committed to seeing it take effect in 2002. BRIDGING THE GAP Koizumi reiterated that stance yesterday. "We are making efforts so that America, the European Union and Japan can achieve cooperation," he told reporters at his official residence. "Things are moving that way." A Japanese official said Koizumi told Powell he wanted Washington to participate in a "constructive way" in the future and that Japan was leaving the door open for U.S. cooperation. Powell told the news conference that the United States was committed to working toward some framework to address the global warming problem. "I told the prime minister that President Bush takes global climate change very, very seriously," he said. "We want to work with Japan and others toward a global framework that deals effectively with the problem of global warming," he said, adding that the United States was putting forward ideas on technological initiatives and reviews were under way. "We have our cabinet members deeply involved in this and hopefully we'll have new ideas that can be presented at COP7 (a follow-up meeting of environment ministers in Morocco in October) or at other future meetings," Powell added. Scientists warn that the greenhouse effect - caused by pollutant gases trapping heat in Earth's atmosphere - could cause average temperatures to increase by up to six degrees Celsius (11 degrees Fahrenheit) in the next 100 years, with devastating effects on the environment. Story by Elaine Monaghan REUTERS NEWS SERVICE ----- US EPA's Whitman likes part of global warming treaty USA: July 25, 2001 WASHINGTON - The Bush administration's top environmental official said yesterday she was pleased the global climate accord reached this week in Germany without U.S. participation allows countries to use their forests and farmland to soak up carbon dioxide emissions. "We believe there's a lot we can do with that," said Christine Todd Whitman, who heads the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, referring to the pact's language that permits forests and farmland to be carbon-storing "sinks." The provision was included in a deal reached by 180 countries in Bonn, Germany this week requiring industrialized nations to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by an average 5.2 percent below 1990 levels by 2012. Whitman, speaking to reporters on Capitol Hill, said the Bush administration is working on its own plan for cutting U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, and that using forests and farmland to achieve that goal would help. "That kind of recognition, the importance of (carbon) sinks, has real implications for farmers, for ranchers and for forestry (and) gives us the opportunity to work aggressively with a number of our interested parties," she said. Whitman said one of the concerns the Bush administration had with the original terms of the international treaty was that it did not give countries sufficient credit for their forest and farmland to offset emissions. "So that was something that held us back for any support of it," she said. The administration is still worried the revised treaty would hurt the U.S. economy by requiring deep reductions in American emissions, while at the same time not requiring developing nation's to make any major cuts. Whitman said the White House has not "set a date certain" for finishing its emissions-cutting plan, but top administration officials will meet in August on the issue after a two-month hiatus. "We are looking for things we can do to put into place voluntary efforts that are going to address these (global warming) issues," she said. "I just don't how quickly we'll come up with a proposal." Whitman rejected charges made by other countries that the Bush administration's position against signing the emissions-cutting treaty has isolated the United States. "We are going to continue to work with the rest of the world," she said. "We're not isolationist." Whitman was on Capitol Hill testifying at a Senate hearing in favor of legislation to make the EPA part of the president's cabinet. The United States is one of only about a dozen countries that doesn't have cabinet level or ministerial status for its top environmental agency. The other countries on the list include Libya, Yemen, Qatar, Peru and Uzbekistan. Whitman said elevating the EPA to the cabinet would make it easier to negotiate with her international counterparts. The Bush administration supports the idea, as do most members of Congress. A vote on the legislation is expected this autumn. Story by Tom Doggett REUTERS NEWS SERVICE ------------------------ ----- US senators slam Bush on Kyoto pact, others say pact flawed USA: July 25, 2001 WASHINGTON - U.S. Senate Democrats told a senior Bush administration official yesterday that the president's rejection of the Kyoto world climate change pact was "deplorable," while at the same hearing a leading Republican said the Kyoto treaty itself was a sham. The two sides of the Kyoto debate surfaced at a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing on what the United States could do to reduce ever-increasing emissions of greenhouse gases, notably the emissions of carbon dioxide. The United States is the biggest emitter of the gases, blamed for a gradual increase in temperature that many scientists say threatens to melt polar ice caps, raise ocean levels and cause radical changes in weather patterns. Skeptics - including some conservative Republicans - doubt the changes are attributable to man-made causes and think the drastic forecasts are alarmist. U.S. BECOMING MORE ISOLATED While the rest of the world celebrated this week's meetings in Bonn, Germany, that settled a compromise Kyoto treaty, the United States has become more isolated on the issue. It was the only major world power to pull out of the pact. The Kyoto treaty calls for industrialized states to trim output of greenhouse gases to an average of 5.2 percent below 1990 levels by 2012. The pact allows industrialized countries to trade emissions with less-developed ones to meet targets, and to use large areas of forests and farmland as carbon-storing "sinks" to offset emissions reduction goals. California Democrat Dianne Feinstein said the United States appeared "really backward" by removing itself from the global treaty. At the same time, Alaska Republican Frank Murkowski said the fact that Bonn negotiators rejected nuclear power as a resource to fight global warming showed the inadequacy of the treaty. Ignoring nuclear power "showed the weakness and fallacy of those basically responsible for the (Bonn) agenda)," said Murkowski, a longtime proponent of more drilling for oil and natural gas in his home state. President George W. Bush in March rejected the Kyoto process, saying the pact's mandated carbon dioxide emission cuts would harm the American economy while not restricting China and less-developed nations from spewing pollutants. Francis Blake, deputy secretary of the U.S. Energy Department, said Congress should focus its attention on funding new technologies to reduce carbon emissions. He deflected the Kyoto treaty criticisms from both sides as ultimately irrelevant. "Research and development opportunities are the single most effective role that Congress and the administration can play (at this time)," Blake told senators. He said "ideas on the drawing board" would alter forever the debate about emission reductions, noting programs in need of federal funding were focused on sequestering carbon dioxide before the gas reached the atmosphere and did any harm. Blake said the Bush agenda was mulling options to combat climate change and said a White House task force would issue its opinions on how to attack the problem. He did not say when the task force would make public its recommendations. US CARBON EMISSIONS GROWING Estimates used by Blake in his testimony showed the nation faces a real problem in reducing carbon emissions. "The Energy Information Administration is projecting that U.S. carbon dioxide emissions from energy consumption will reach 1800 million metric tons of carbon equivalent in 2010, and continue to rise to 2000 million metric tons by 2020, an average annual growth rate of 1.4 percent," Blake said. "We will need a concerted effort to reduce this trend." Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman, a New Mexico Democrat, said it was time to push on with new ideas for battling emissions, although he noted the Kyoto pact worked out in Bonn seemed to answer many of Bush's concerns. "Agreement was reached on rules for the Kyoto Protocol yesterday that include all of the flexibility mechanisms the U.S. government and U.S. industry had long argued were critical to a cost-effective strategy," Bingaman said. He said just last month his panel took testimony from experts that showed China had reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by as much as one-third over the past 20 years through increasing efficiency. More details for the global climate treaty will be hammered out at an October meeting of world environment ministers in Morocco. Story by Patrick Connole REUTERS NEWS SERVICE -- Los Angeles Times <http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-072501dioxide.story<, July 25 Congress Moves to Follow on Kyoto Environment: Lawmakers are caught off guard by other nations' decision to deal with problem of global warming without U.S. help. Effort to pass legislation to curb emissions is revived. By ELIZABETH SHOGREN Times Staff Writer July 25 2001 WASHINGTON -- Congressional efforts to combat global warming received an unexpected boost from a decision this week by more than 180 countries to deal with the problem without the United States, outside experts and key lawmakers said Tuesday. They added that prospects now appear good that Congress will pass one or more measures designed to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide, which scientists say is the chief contributor to global warming. "The odds are improving that this Congress will deal with the issue before the [2002] election," said Rep. Sherwood L. Boehlert (R-N.Y.), a leading environmentalist in his party. Several House and Senate members said they were caught off guard when the other countries adopted rules Monday in Bonn to implement the Kyoto Protocol without U.S. participation. "Bonn surprised people," said Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.). "The feeling was that, if the United States took its football and left the field, the game couldn't go forward. But the rest of the nations of the world found their own football, and they completed the game. They left the United States on the sidelines." In meetings in Europe last week, President Bush cited congressional sentiment as having contributed to his decision to play no role in the development of rules to implement the 1997 accord reached in Kyoto, Japan. The accord called on industrial countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels. But sentiment in Congress has changed significantly since the Senate voted, 95 to 0, four years ago to direct the president not to sign a binding treaty to limit emissions unless developing countries were required to do the same. Bush, who has characterized the Kyoto accord as "fatally flawed," has promised to address the issue of global warming. But so far his proposals mainly have involved studying the problem and redirecting funds to underwrite new technologies to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. After meeting with his counterparts in Genoa, Italy, last week, Bush agreed to produce a U.S. strategy to combat climate change by the next meeting of Kyoto participants, scheduled for October. But on Capitol Hill, several efforts to address climate change already are in motion. Sen. James M. Jeffords (I-Vt.), in his new role as chairman of the Senate Environment Committee, is holding the first hearing Thursday on legislation that would regulate four pollutants emitted by power plants--including carbon dioxide, which scientists consider the major contributor to global warming. Bipartisan bills have been introduced in both houses to significantly tighten fuel-efficiency standards for sport-utility vehicles and light trucks, which would reduce carbon dioxide emissions. The GOP-controlled House also has altered its stance on climate change. Representatives have voted overwhelmingly to strip language from funding bills that would prohibit federal agencies from spending money to implement the Kyoto accord. Even two traditional climate-change skeptics--Sens. Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.) and Ted Stevens (R-Alaska)--are co-sponsoring a bill that would direct the White House to create an office on climate change and to produce annual strategies to reduce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse emissions. Both senators represent states that are major producers of fossil fuels. "I think there's a greater willingness to go ahead," said Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), chairman of the Senate Energy Committee. "I don't know for certain where the votes are. But I believe [senators] are less and less comfortable with the administration's apparent inability to form a policy. Some of that is about what's happening internationally, and some of that is what people are hearing from their constituents." They agreed that the United States' awkward--some say untenable--position on the sidelines of the Kyoto process is increasing the prospects for congressional action. "The events in Bonn will accelerate movements that have begun here over the last several months toward doing something to curb American greenhouse gas emissions," Lieberman said. "There has been a growing bipartisan movement to take action even while the Bush administration has been pulling away from the international process. It really has been fascinating." Eileen Claussen, who was assistant secretary of State with responsibility for climate change negotiations in the Clinton administration, said she was amazed by the shift in attitudes in the Senate. "Kyoto was such a dirty word from the end of 1997 until now," said Claussen, now president of the Pew Center of Global Climate Change. "You could barely go up to the Hill and say 'Kyoto' before. You might have been able to say 'climate change,' but any real interest in doing something about climate change was only from a very small minority." Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), a leader on climate change policy in the Senate, said the agreement in Bonn improves the odds that Congress will proceed on climate change legislation, albeit in piecemeal fashion. "I think it increases the pressure--not necessarily to pass a facsimile of the treaty but to embrace individual initiatives that have an impact on emissions," Kerry said. "It will proceed in a step-by-step process." The combined effect of those steps, he said, "may be quite significant." Still, Kerry expressed skepticism that a comprehensive strategy could be passed without leadership from the White House. "You can legislate to a certain degree, but without an administration and the bully pulpit of the presidency, it's exceedingly difficult to embrace a larger scheme." Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said she considered it "deplorable and arrogant" that the administration turned its back on Kyoto, noting that the United States is responsible for about a quarter of the world's carbon dioxide emissions. "There's no question that climate change is the No. 1 environmental issue in the United States," she said. Feinstein said she believes that tightening fuel-efficiency standards for SUVs and light trucks is the most important thing that Congress can do in a "single stroke." Cars and trucks account for about a third of carbon dioxide emissions in this country. Jeffords expressed hope that at some point the United States will rejoin the international effort to fight global warming. In the meantime, he said, he will fight for passage of his bill to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from power plants, which are responsible for an additional third of U.S. emissions. "I am hopeful we can get it passed in the Senate," Jeffords said. "It's not going to be easy if the White House pulls out all the stops in opposition." Earlier this year, Bush reversed a campaign promise to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from power plants, then pulled out of the Kyoto accord. Preliminary government estimates show that carbon dioxide emissions, a major contributor to global warming, jumped nearly 3% in the United States last year while declining in other industrialized nations and China. Copyright 2001, Los Angeles Times <http://www.latimes.com<; Lisa Jacobson Enron Manager, Environmental Strategies 1775 Eye Street, NW Suite 800 Washington, DC 20006 Phone: +(202) 466-9176 Fax: +(202) 331-4717
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